


Life Will Find a Way

by unwritten_muse



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-19
Updated: 2012-09-19
Packaged: 2017-11-14 14:38:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/516265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwritten_muse/pseuds/unwritten_muse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dax tries to win an argument</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life Will Find a Way

"Where are we exactly?" Kira's foot twisted on the loose rock between the rails, helping to sour her mood even further. This wasn't exactly what she'd been expecting when she agreed to join Dax in a holosuite for a few minutes. The air around them was stale and oddly sticky, as if she'd have to peel off a skin of it once they finally left. The walls were dirty and covered in large letters and drawings that perhaps she might have appreciated had she not been wondering what was scuttling along beside her in the shadowed recess by her feet.

Dax's steps never faltered as she continued down the track, looking back for just a moment to give Kira a quick smile.

"It's an old subway tunnel from the late 21st century on Earth."

"Subway."

"An underground train, this one out of use for approximately 30 years."

Kira was seriously beginning to question any friendship that would end up here. "Why in the world did you program this?"

"I was experimenting with different locations for bat'leth and calisthenics training. Used it a couple of times but it just didn't feel right. But then," she proclaimed, ducking into a small alcove, "I found this."

She pressed back along the side wall to let Kira squeeze past. High above their heads, the small space was open to the outside; the grate that covered the opening cast scant light in irregular patterns on the floor below. And despite the rest of the tunnel dealing with an excess of moisture, this area seemed unnaturally dry. And yet, growing from within several cracks in the cement, tall stalks of some plant stretched for the sky, their long stems twisting together in a delicate pattern, new buds just beginning to open.

Kira dutifully looked around, trying very hard to put aside her annoyance and see whatever it was that Dax found so interesting. After several moments she gave up.

"Jadzia, why am I here? This is all very pretty but plants growing in unusual places is hardly newsworthy."

"We were talking earlier this week about the seemingly impossible, that astounding one in a million occurrence that's scientifically possible but realistically implausible."

"C'mon, Dax. This isn't anywhere on the same scale of what we were talking about."

"But it does make you realize the potential for life is everywhere."

"The potential is in your own head. You created this program."

"I requested this kind of location with some very broad specifications. The computer hasn't generated an exact duplicate of a particular subway tunnel, merely created one based on recorded information."

"It probably knew you'd find it fascinating."

Dax looked down at the ground in frustration, resisting the urge to reach out and shake her friend.

"This is just a demonstration, something to illustrate a point."

"Which is?"

"The life form on Aldurian IV."

Kira gave Dax a pointed stare; she was tired of this conversation. She started to return to the entrance, Dax and the never-ending argument following close behind her.

"The life form on Aldurian IV is of unknown origin or composition. We don't even know if it's organic or inorganic because it confounds our scanning equipment."

"I don't doubt its existence and I agree it's one of the more unusual discoveries I've ever heard of."

"But you questioned how I described its mode of communication."

Kira sighed. "I merely said there were other more plausible explanations for the things you and the others saw, and that it could hardly be considered 'communicating' if none of you had any idea what it was saying. They were random images and 'creations' that none of you recognized or understood. You yourself said the atmosphere there could have been causing mild hallucinations."

"And I also said I didn't believe we'd been exposed to high enough concentrations of the psychotropic particles to have affected us like that." Dax moved to block Kira's path, who now looked not so much annoyed as dumbfounded.

"Those plants," Dax continued, more earnest than ever, "are of an unknown genus. I can't find any record of them and they're definitely not indigenous to Earth, which is where this type of tunnel is from. And if it was somehow adding to the program using data about me, wouldn't it be Trill or from some part of the universe where I've actually been? And yet the computer, extrapolating from whatever data it has stored, included these unidentified plants in a program where they're not even needed."

"You don't think the computer is trying to communicate with us?"

"Of course not. But if a machine can create something this random, if it can get its wires crossed over something this simple, why couldn't a life form? Confronted with creatures it's never seen before, trying to make connections between what it sees in our minds and what it knows, but making mistakes in the execution."

Kira looked at Dax for a moment, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth. "It never ceases to surprise me when you won't let something drop; you always have to convince me. Does that stubborn streak come from Jadzia or Dax?"

Dax smiled. "Probably from both."

Their laughter seemed to be enveloped by the thickness in the air.

"Okay," Kira said, "you win. Assuming all of you were still in your right minds, it is possible the life form was trying to communicate but its 'words' were getting lost in translation."

" _Assuming_ we were in our right minds?"

"Computer, exit." Kira stepped around Dax and continued toward the door. "Some random plant on a holosuite isn't going to convince me the atmosphere on that rock wasn't messing with your brains."

"You're being deliberately skeptical, aren't you? It's not that you don't believe me, you just won't admit it."

The doors slid open and Kira turned to face Dax. "Find a way to prove to me you weren't high and we'll talk." She turned and stepped out into the hall, a broad smile just managing to suppress the laugh underneath.


End file.
